In this paper we aim to think systematically about, formulate, and begin addressing some of the challenges to applying theories of moral responsibility to behaviors shaped by a particular subset of unsettling psychological complexities: namely, implicit biases.

In the article the models which are reconstructed in the philosophy of science from the praxis of science are divided into two main types: 1) analogue and metaphor-based models and 2) representational models. I examine functions of the models of both the types, and demonstrate that the models of type 1) are used in science as instruments of acquiring new knowledge on the basis of a knowledge accepted earlier; and models of type 2) are used to create cognitive “images” of (...) reality. I demonstrate that in the philosophy of science the problem areas generated by two functions of models are entirely isolated one from another. Whereas they are non-separably linked one to another. I postulate the necessity of linking them in one unified conception of models, and then in one conception of science. Therefore such a conception of models is needed which will explain how models play two functions simultaneously, i.e. how they function in the context of discovery and how they rep-resent reality. (shrink)

Mówiąc o historii frazeologii języka niemieckiego, należy wyróżnić dwie zasadnicze fazy. Pierwsza z nich to odległy okres sięgający jeszcze XVII w., kiedy to w centrum zainteresowania badaczy stały paremia. Na tym etapie określanie zainteresowania frazeologizmami terminem dyscyplina byłoby nieco na wyrost. Autorzy tego okresu ograniczali się bowiem do inwentaryzacji funkcjonujących w języku przysłów. W tym miejscu należy wspomnieć takie nazwiska, jak Peters czy Schottel, których prace ze względu na jakość zasługują na szczególne uznanie. Do wieku XIX nie doszło do przełomu (...) w badaniach nad frazeologizmami. Jedynym godnym uwagi jest fakt, że pojawia się termin idiomatyczność, jedna z głównych cech związków frazeologicznych, wprowadzony przez Paula. Zaowocowało to pracami, których autorzy starali się w oparciu o to kryterium dokonywać podziału zespołów wyrazowych Jednak ich zainteresowanie dalekie było jeszcze od szczegółowej analizy, a skupiało się wyłącznie na inwentaryzacji. Dopiero wiek XX za sprawą pracy Traité de stilistique franęaise Bally’ego przyniósł przełom w badaniach frazeologizmów i stworzył fundamenty, na których powstała nowa dziedzina językoznawstwa. Choć początkowo praca nie spotkała się z większym zainteresowaniem, to w latach trzydziestych i czterdziestych minionego wieku znalazła uznanie radzieckich badaczy. To dzięki takim językoznawcom, jak Vinogradov czy Černyševa nastąpił istny renesans badań związków frazeologicznych, który ostatecznie doprowadził tam do wykrystalizowania się w latach czterdziestych XX w. frazeologii jako uznanej dyscypliny językoznawstwa. Osiągnięcia radzieckiej frazeologii przeniosła na grunt niemieckiej lingwistyki Ruth Klappenbach pod koniec lat sześćdziesiątych XX w. W roku 1970 Irina Černyševa opublikowała szczegółową pracę, poświęconą niemieckiej frazeologii. Powstałe później publikacje takich autorów, jak Koller, Pilz, Burger czy Fleischer, stały się żelaznym kanonem frazeologii języka niemieckiego i na stałe ugruntowały pozycję nowej dyscypliny. Kolejne publikacje autorów z całego świata, mające często charakter interdyscyplinarny, ukazują wciąż nowe kierunki badań frazeologizmów. Tym samym stanowią one nieoceniony wkład w dalszy rozwój niemieckiej frazeologii. (shrink)

I analyse three most interesting and extensive approaches to theoretical models: classical ones—proposed by Peter Achinstein and Michael Redhead, and the rela-tively rareanalysed approach of Ryszard Wójcicki, belonging to a later phase of his research where he gave up applyingthe conceptual apparatus of logical semantics. I take into consideration the approaches to theoretical models in which they are qualified as models representing the reality. That is why I omit Max Black’s and Mary Hesse’s concepts of such models, as those two (...) concepts belong to the analogue model group if we consider the main function of the model of a given class as its classification criterion. My main focus is on theoretical models with representative functions as these very models and, in a broader context, the question of representation. (shrink)

Heterogeneous treatment effects represent a major issue for medicine as they undermine reliable inference and clinical decision-making. To overcome the issue, the current vision of precision and personalized medicine acknowledges the need to control individual variability in response to treatment. In this paper, we argue that gene-treatment-environment interactions (G × T × E) undermine inferences about individual treatment effects from the results of both genomics-based methodologies—such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and genome-wide interaction studies (GWIS)—and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Then, (...) we argue that N-of-1 trials can be a solution to overcome difficulties in handling individual variability in treatment response. Although this type of trial has been suggested as a promising strategy to assess individual treatment effects, it nonetheless has limitations that limit its use in everyday clinical practice. We analyze the existing variability within the designs of N-of-1 trials in terms of a continuum where each design prioritizes epistemic and pragmatic considerations. We then support wider use of the designs located at the pragmatic end of the explanatory-pragmatic continuum. (shrink)

The main objective of this paper is to present a reinterpretation of Karl Popper’'s position on the methodological and sociopolitical views of Karl Marx. In spite of the weaknesses of the Popper’'s critique of the achievements of Marx, special attention will be focused on the explanation of contradictions within the epistemological position of the former. This will be of great importance in the context of the analysis of Marx’s historicism, and will also help undermine the coherence view of the founder (...) of falsi
cationism. Additionally, this newly developed perspective will serve as a starting point for evaluation of Marx’s intellectual output, as well as conceptions that refer to him. (shrink)

Interview of Amina Kkhelufi, Kseniia Myroshnyk, Nataliia Reva with Natalia Viatkina.

The methodological nonreductionism of contemporary biology opens an interesting discussion on the level of ontology and the philosophy of nature. The theory of emergence (EM), and downward causation (DC) in particular, bring a new set of arguments challenging not only methodological, but also ontological and causal reductionism. This argumentation provides a crucial philosophical foundation for the science/theology dialogue. However, a closer examination shows that proponents of EM do not present a unified and consistent definition of DC. Moreover, they find it (...) difficult to prove that higher-order properties can be causally significant without violating the causal laws that operate at lower physical levels. They also face the problem of circularity and incoherence in their explanation. In our article we show that these problems can be overcome only if DC is understood in terms of formal rather than physical (efficient) causality. This breakdown of causal monism in science opens a way to the retrieval of the fourfold Aristotelian notion of causality. (shrink)

In her Nobel speech in 2019, Olga Tokarczuk presented the category of tenderness as a new way of narrating the contemporary world. This article is a proposal for the analysis and interpretation of tenderness in ethical and aesthetic terms. (1) From an ethical perspective, tenderness is interpreted as an extension and complement of feminist relational ethics, i.e., the ethics of care. In the proposed approach, tenderness is a broader and more universal quality than care in the feminist understanding. This article (...) opens with a brief discussion of feminist interventions in ethics, with particular emphasis on the ethics of care. Next, the differences between care and tenderness are enumerated and described, in order to show how tenderness can serve as an extension and complement of the feminist ethic of care. These considerations are guided by the question of why tenderness is a better—more appropriate and more responsive to contemporary challenges—moral guidepost than care. (2) From the aesthetic perspective, tenderness is the negation of a contemplative, distanced, impersonal, and rational view of reality. As an aesthetic imperative, tenderness implies engaged experience of the beauty of reality in all of its manifestations. Therefore, in the last part of the article, existential tender attunement is described in aesthetic terms, as a position serving to sensitize others to the beauty and complexity of the post-anthropocentric world. (shrink)

The two main features of this thesis are (i) an account of contextualized (context indexed) counterfactuals, and (ii) a non-vacuist account of counterpossibles. Experience tells us that the truth of the counterfactual is contingent on what is meant by the antecedent, which in turn rests on what context is assumed to underlie its reading (intended meaning). On most conditional analyses, only the world of evaluation and the antecedent determine which worlds are relevant to determining the truth of a conditional, and (...) consequently what its truth value is. But that results in the underlying context being fixed, when evaluating distinct counterfactuals with the same antecedent on any single occasion, even when the context underlying the evaluation of each counterfactual may vary. Alternative approaches go some of the way toward resolving this inadequacy by appealing to a difference in the consequents associated with counterfactuals with the same antecedent. That is, in addition to the world of evaluation and the antecedent, the consequent contributes to the counterfactual’s evaluation. But these alternative approaches nevertheless give a single, determinate truth value to any single conditional (same antecedent and consequent), despite the possibility that this value may vary with context. My reply to these shortcomings (chapter 4) takes the form of an analysis of a language that makes appropriate explicit access to the intended context available. That is, I give an account of a contextualized counterfactual of the form ‘In context C: If it were the case that … , then it would be the case that …’. Although my proposal is largely based on Lewis’ (1973, 1981) analyses of counterfactuals (the logic VW and its ordering semantics), it does not require that any particular logic of counterfactuals should serve as its basis – rather, it is a general prescription for contextualizing a conditional language. The advantage of working with ordering semantics stems from existing results (which I apply and develop) concerning the properties of ordering frames that facilitate fashioning and implementing a notion of contextual information preservation. Analyses of counterfactuals, such as Lewis’ (1973), that cash out the truth of counterfactuals in terms of the corresponding material conditional’s truth at possible worlds result in all counterpossibles being evaluated as vacuously true. This is because antecedents of counterpossibles are not true at any possible world, by definition. Such vacuist analyses have already been identified and challenged by a number of authors. I join this critical front, and drawing on existing proposals, I develop an impossible world semantics for a non-vacuist account of counterpossibles (chapter 5), by modifying the same system and semantics that serve the basis of the contextualized account offered in chapter 4, i.e. Lewis’ (1986) ordering semantics for the logic VW. I critically evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of key conditions on the ordering of worlds on the extended domain and show that there is a sense in which all of Lewis’ analysis of mere counterfactuals can be preserved, whilst offering an analysis of counterpossibles that meets our intuitions. The first part of chapter 1 consists of an outline of the usefulness of impossible worlds across philosophical analyses and logic. That outline in conjunction with a critical evaluation of Lewis’ logical arguments in favour of vacuism in chapter 2, and his marvellous mountain argument against impossible worlds in chapter 3, serves to motivate and justify the impossible world semantics for counterpossibles proposed in chapter 5. The second part of chapter 1 discusses the limitations that various conditional logics face when tasked to give an adequate treatment of the influence of context. That introductory discussion in conjunction with an overview of conditional logics and their various semantics in chapter 2 – which includes an in-depth exposition of Stalnaker-Lewis similarity semantics for counterfactuals – serves as the motivation and conceptual basis for the contextualized account of counterfactuals proposed in chapter 4. (shrink)

Maria Gołaszewska (1926–2015), a Polish philosopher, was associated throughout her life with Poland’s oldest academic institution, the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. She was a student of the phenomenologist Roman Ingarden, himself a student of Edmund Husserl. During the postwar and communist years in Poland, Gołaszewska conducted research focusing on issues related to art and aesthetics. She created her own conception of empirically and anthropologically oriented aesthetics, which I believe is a prime example of a theory that accounts for the perspective (...) of gender, and in this sense should be acknowledged as an important contribution to contemporary gender-sensitive/feminist philosophy. In the article, I present Gołaszewska’s life, academic career, and philosophy as a cognitively valuable response to feminist philosophy’s search for a suitable description of women’s experiences related to art and aesthetic perception. (shrink)

In the paper, I pose the question of how, on artistic, aesthetic, and philosophical levels, decoration and domestic handicrafts as subversive strategies enable the undermining and breakdown of class-based and patriarchal divisions into high and low, objective and subjective, public and private, masculine and feminine. I explore whether handicrafts, in accordance with feminist postulates, are transgressive, transformative, and inclusive. I link handicrafts with the feminist perspective, since, in the second half of the twentieth century, it was precisely the feminist movement (...) that initiated significant changes in the social and cultural perception of women, femininity, and gender relations. Thus I apply this perspective in the first place to the analysis of selected works of contemporary art in which handicrafts is used not only as a means of artistic expression but also as a subversive aesthetic strategy. I also demonstrate how the world of fashion transforms and aesthetizes handicrafts, whose presence in fashion makes it an area in which, in addition to imperatives and aesthetic values, social attitudes, ethical values, and world views are shaped. Finally, referring to the works of selected feminist authors (Mary Field Belenky, Mary Daly, Evelyn Fox-Keller, Donna Haraway), I show how these researchers have metaphorically interpreted handicrafts as specifically feminine ways of creating and developing knowledge. (shrink)

The article presents the evolution of the language of advertising from the 1960s to the present, presenting various images of women in advertising. Simultaneously a theoretical analysis has been carried out of the demands of second-wave feminism, which exerted significant influence on the creation of images of women in the mass media. The objective of our comparison of feminist theory with advertising practice is an attempt to answer the question of whether the present media image of women liberated from the (...) binary sexual order and weighted towards the genderqueer and/or transgender phenomena is the desired realization of the feminist demands for emancipation of and equality for women announced in the second half of the twentieth century. (shrink)

The anti-reductionist character of the recent philosophy of biology and the dynamic development of the science of emergent properties prove that the time is ripe to reintroduce the thought of Aristotle, the first advocate of a “top-down” approach in life-sciences, back into the science/philosophy debate. His philosophy of nature provides profound insights particularly in the context of the contemporary science of evolution, which is still struggling with the questions of form, teleology, and the role of chance in evolutionary processes. However, (...) although Aristotle is referenced in the evolutionary debate, a thorough analysis of his theory of hylomorphism and the classical principle of causality which he proposes is still needed in this exchange. Such is the main concern of the first part of the present article which shows Aristotle’s metaphysics of substance as an open system, ready to incorporate new hypothesis of modern and contemporary science. The second part begins with the historical exploration of the trajectory from Darwin to Darwinism regarded as a metaphysical position. This exploration leads to an inquiry into the central topics of the present debate in the philosophy of evolutionary biology. It shows that Aristotle’s understanding of species, teleology, and chance – in the context of his fourfold notion of causality – has a considerable explanatory power which may enhance our understanding of the nature of evolutionary processes. This fact may inspire, in turn, a retrieval of the classical theology of divine action, based on Aristotelian metaphysics, in the science/theology dialogue. The aim of the present article is to prepare a philosophical ground for such project. (shrink)

There are two traditions of thinking about idealization offering almost opposite views on their functioning and epistemic status. While one tradition views idealizations as epistemic deficiencies, the other one highlights the epistemic benefits of idealization. Both of these, however, identify idealization with misrepresentation. In this article, we instead approach idealization from the artifactual perspective, comparing it to the distortion-to-reality accounts of idealization, and exemplifying it through the case of the Hodgkin and Huxley model of nerve impulse. From the artifactual perspective, (...) the epistemic benefits and deficiencies introduced by idealization frequently come in a package due to the way idealization draws together different resources in model construction. Accordingly, idealization tends to be holistic in that it is not often easily attributable to just some specific parts of the model. Instead, the idealizing process tightly embeds theoretical concepts and formal tools into the construction of a model. (shrink)

Can Contemporary Science Inspire Philosophical and Theological Reflection on Causality? The cooperation between natural science, philosophy, and theology in an analysis of the causal structure and co-dependency of entities in the universe seems to be both legitimate and expected. It turns out, however, that in practice it oftentimes raises some tensions, questions and difficulties, leading to the development of alternative and in a sense competitive models of causality and of God’s action in the world. What is more, the attitude of (...) natural sciences since modernity, concentrated on gaining knowledge about natural phenomena to predict and control them, without trying to determine the nature of their ultimate causes, Humean criticism and rejection of the concept of causality as such, and concentration of analytic philosophers on the description of what accompanies phenomena classified as causal, leaving aside the question of the metaphysical status of causes and effects – they all seem to make impossible an interaction and mutual reference of contemporary science, philosophy, and theology in their reflection on the topic of causation. The main goal of this article is to defend the thesis about the possible and actual influence of scientific analysis of cause and effect relationships on the philosophical and theological reflection on causation, not only in the Middle Ages and Modernity, but also in contemporary thought. The presentation of the latest positions in the debate on divine action in the natural world will be followed by an argument in favor of the relevance of the model developed by philosophers and theologians representing the Thomistic school. (shrink)

The article deals with the philosophical problem of the objectivity of knowledge in relation to the ideas and postulates advanced by feminist critics from the 1960s on. To this end, I take the historical perspective into account and present successively selected threads of feminist criticism of the traditional theory of knowledge, followed by selected positive aspects of feminist epistemology. First of all, I discuss feminist criticism of the androcentric research model, which is based on the doctrine of the disembodied, detached (...) objectivity of the subject and object of research as well as of knowledge itself. Next, I present selected feminist approaches to knowledge which constitute cognitively valuable proposals for the transformation of the traditional theory of knowledge through the application in philosophical reflection and research of the feminist research perspective. (shrink)

Artykuł stanowi próbę artystycznej i estetycznej analizy dzieła Chrystus św. Jana od Krzyża Salvadora Dalego jako obrazu realizującego główne postulaty estetyki postmodernizmu. Zastosowana perspektywa badawcza ma na celu wyjście poza tradycyjną zależność polegającą na wskazywaniu tego, co postmodernizm przejął od wcześniejszych nurtów awangardowych, w szczególności od surrealizmu. Proponowana odwrócona perspektywa odsyła do innej, wzbogacającej relacji: wskazuje bezpośrednio na to, co surrealizm odkrył i w artystyczny sposób wykorzystał na długo przed nastaniem estetyki postmodernizmu.

Problem kobiecej tożsamości jest zagadnieniem żywym we współczesnym dyskursie feministycznym. Szczególne miejsce zajmuje on zwłaszcza we francuskiej myśli feministycznej, reprezentowanej między innymi przez liberalną feministkę Élisabeth Badinter. Najnowsza książka filozofki, zatytułowana Konflikt: kobieta i matka, stanowi szczegółowe opracowanie obowiązujących obecnie poglądów na naturę kobiety jako matki, która pragnie także realizować swoje własne, indywidualne potrzeby. Stąd tytułowy konflikt wartości, będący podłożem współczesnego kryzysu kobiecej tożsamości. Początki tożsamościowego myślenia kobiet przypisuje się matce europejskiego feminizmu, Simone de Beauvoir. Badinter, kontynuując tożsamościowe rozważanie de (...) Beauvoir, analizuje wpływ myślenia naturalistycznego i maternalistycznego na obowiązujący obecnie status kobiet. Filozofka zajmuje się także wyjątkowym przypadkiem Francuzek, które ze względu na historyczną specyfikę realiów życia we Francji jako jedyne realizują współcześnie model spełnionej kobiety i zaangażowanej matki. (shrink)

It is commonly believed that the role of context cannot be ignored in the analysis of conditionals, and counterfactuals in particular. On truth conditional accounts involving possible worlds semantics, conditionals have been analysed as expressions of relative necessity: “If A, then B” is true at some world w if B is true at all the A-worlds deemed relevant to the evaluation of the conditional at w. A drawback of this approach is that for the evaluation of conditionals with the same (...) antecedents at some world, the same worlds are deemed as relevant for all occasions of utterance. But surely this is inadequate, if shifts of contexts between occasions are to be accounted for. Both the linguistic and logical implications of this defect are discussed, and in order to overcome it a modification of David Lewis’ ordering semantics for counterfactuals is developed for a modified language. I follow Lewis by letting contexts determine comparative similarity assignments, and show that the addition of syntactic context parameters (context indices) to the language gives the freedom required to switch between sets of relevant antecedent worlds from occasion to occasion by choosing the corresponding similarity assignment accordingly. Thus an account that extends Lewis’ analysis of a language containing a single counterfactual connective > to a language containing infinitely many counterfactual connectives >_c, each indexed by a different context name c, overcomes the limitations of traditional analyses. Finally it is also shown that these traditional accounts can be recovered from the modified account if certain contextual restrictions are in place. -/- . (shrink)

Nakładem wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu w Walencji ukazała się w 2008 roku książka brytyjskiego profesora Iana Ground’a, zatytułowana ¿Arte o chorrada? (tytuł oryginału: ang. Art or bunk?). Ian Ground jest wykładowcą Uniwersytetów w Edynburgu oraz Newcastle, przedmiotem jego zainteresowań filozoficznych jest estetyka oraz zagadnienia sztuki współczesnej. Długoletnie doświadczenie w pracy ze studentami stało się dla niego inspiracją do podjęcia próby przybliżenia odbiorcy idei sztuki współczesnej. Celem autora nie jest jednak podanie bezpośredniej odpowiedzi na pytanie: jak poradzić sobie w świecie sztuki współczesnej, ale (...) dostarczenie określonych narzędzi, pomocnych w zetknięciu z tego rodzaju sztuką. W zamyśle autora, narzędzia te pozwolą odbiorcy dokonać fundamentalnego osądu: czy ma do czynienia z dziełem sztuki, czy też ze zwykłym „śmieciem” i pospolitą „bzdurą” (ang. bunk, hiszp. chorrada). ¿Arte o chorrada? to próba stworzenia elementarnego podręcznika, prezentującego metodę analizy dzieła, które stało się dla nas wyzwaniem oraz zawierającego propozycję pewnych rozwiązań, nie zawsze będących gwarancją osiągnięcia sukcesu. Podobnie jak wiele innych prac związanych z tematem sztuki XX wieku, książka Iana Ground’a nie jest niezawodnym remedium na wszelkie bolączki odbiorcy sztuki współczesnej. Możemy ją raczej potraktować jako solidne zestawienie tez, na których autor opiera swoją propozycję rozumienia dzieł sztuki i w konsekwencji, konstruktywne podejście do omawianego problemu. (shrink)

Anne Finch Conway es una de las filósofas del siglo XVII que discutió con los filósofos destacados de su época. La única obra con la que contamos de esta autora es Principia Philosophiae Anticissimae et Recentissimae o The Principle of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy. En este artículo me propongo dar cuenta del rol que la naturaleza humana tiene en su metafísica, de modo de encontrar un lugar más específico para el dolor y el sufrimiento en un mundo que (...) parece ante todo gobernado por el amor recíproco y la simpatía. El concepto de hombre microcosmos y la relación de este con Cristo tiene una importancia poco destacada por la bibliografía sobre nuestra filósofa. Con esta meta, presentaré su metafísica prestando especial atención a la sustancia creada y su relación con la sustancia media, Cristo, y la sustancia primera, Dios. De este modo, además, daré cuenta de la responsabilidad que la naturaleza humana tiene con el mundo de la creación, por lo cual me permito mencionar también lo “ecológico” en el pensamiento de Conway, ya que el perfeccionamiento de la naturaleza humana es el perfeccionamiento de toda la naturaleza. (shrink)

Contextualist accounts of aesthetic predicates have difficulties explaining why we feel that speakers are disagreeing when they make true and compatible but superficially contradictory aesthetic judgments. One possible way to account for the disagreement is hybrid expressivism, which holds that the disagreement happens at the level of pragmatically conveyed, clashing contents about the speakers’ conative states. Marques defends such a strategy, combining dispositionalism about value, contextualism, and hybrid expressivism. This paper critically evaluates the plausibility of the suggested pragmatic mechanisms in (...) conveying the kind of contents Marques takes to explain disagreements. The positive part suggests an alternative account of how aesthetic judgments are sources of information about speakers’ conative aesthetic states. (shrink)

Prior to this intervention the site used to be a degraded fiscal property, that functioned as a bus yard, a police legal deposit, and a restaurant parking lot. Underneath it runs the Maldonado stream culvert, covered by a concrete slab at a depth of only -20cm. Next to the site is a 5m high railroad embankment. The plot is strategically located at the end of Juan B. Justo avenue and works as a gateway to the Tres de Febrero park (also (...) known as Bosques de Palermo, the Buenos Aires’s biggest green space designed by Charles Thays in 1875). It is situated in the neighborhood of Palermo, an area that underwent a vertiginous residential and commercial expansion since the late 90´s. -/- The design approach is influenced by the adjacent urban fragments: the grounds of the Sociedad Rural Argentina, the surrounding Avenues Santa Fe-Sarmiento; the opening of Darregueyra street expected for the near future, the implementation of historic preservation guidelines for the Tres de Febrero Park, and the proposal for the development of nearby railroad yards. -/- Specifically, the project seeks to minimize the impact of the fast traffic that runs along Bullrich avenue, improving pedestrian and cycle access to the park. At the same time it defines new landscape features, utilizing the earth made available by the tunneling works of a new subway line. -/- The project comprises the structuring of an existing 800 meter long embankment and the transformation of the sidewalk into a public promenade. This is achieved through a wider sidewalk of 12m on average, which is part of a series of longitudinal stripes ranging from high speed to quiet spaces. The first band of grass and aged tipas (tipuana tipu) buffer pedestrian and cyclist from automotive traffic. Cycle traffic is organized on its own lane. The sidewalk itself contains several bays that act as urban lounges. Next, a continuous concrete bench delimits the beginning of the slope, backed by a stripe of grass that works as a soft extension. Finally, plants for contemplation are arranged as undulating traces. Rhythmic use of retaining gabions defines longitudinal segments of varying slope, unifying the spacial criterion. This series is punctuated by an amphitheater and framed by triangular plazas at the corners. -/- Material choices for hard surfaces are constrained by concerns of durability, low cost, and consistency with other ongoing public works. -/- Hard materials, as well as the plant selection needed to be low-maintenance. The palette was kept to reinforced concrete, granitic slabs, and granite stone in large size –forming retaining gabions- and as loose finishing for pavements. Likewise, the lack of a protective enclosure and of continuous surveillance dictated that urban furniture and fixtures be anti-vandalic. The stealing of these components –from inspection lids, to benches, to plants- is a common problem in urban spaces in many Latin American cities. To prevent this, fixtures must be designed according to precise specifications regarding their weight, fixing and anchoring systems, and mechanical parts. -/- Sidewalks are organized through a 6 meter grid made of granitic white slab, infilled with textured combed nonslip concrete modules. Extended bays and corner squares are finished with white and black slabs respectively. These materials are similar to another used in public spaces under construction, in the believe that it creates a collective identification of themselves along the city. -/- The continuous reinforced concrete bench is 1.10 m wide, in order to allow people to use it in non-conventional ways. Further up on the slope, undulating paths separate plant species and provide access for gardening, but are also open to use by the public. They are paved with 2 meter-long precast concrete slabs (smaller and lighter pieces were avoided to deter robbery). As they reach the gabions they connect with sloping paths covered with loose granitic stones. The gabions themselves allow the creation of varying slopes while contributing to retaining the soil, which is reinforced with geosynthetic fabric in the perimeter to avoid landslides originated by strong rains typical of the region. -/- Urban furniture is featured on the wider bays of the sidewalk and at corner plazas. It includes seats, water fountains, bicycle racks, wastepaper baskets. As a counterpoint to the linear concrete bench, groups of concrete seats are arranged informally. These seats are a reinterpretation of the dynamic BKF chair (also known as Butterfly chair), the classic Argentinean design of the 1930’ by Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy. A few low concrete tables complete these spaces as authentic urban lounges. Lighting design accompanies the general features of the project and creates a new scenography emphasizing night-time usage. -/- Landscape gardening criteria is set up by a selection of various species of high-resistant pasture (grass). The higher the slope, the higher the grass, increasing the final volumetric result. Based on considering the original tipas line (tipuana tipu, a species from the north of Argentina, yellow flowering) as a vertical wall that frames the view, the horizontal stripes contain a single species each, differing in size, shade and flowering periods –adding, in the middle band, a changing color on the big green plane slope in the same chromatic range. The final configuration of the stripe sequence from bottom to top: bermuda grass, bulbine frutescens, euryops pectinatus. The upper band existing native species is reinforced with new samples: paspalum exaltatum + cortadera selloana and ipomea + thumbergia climbing the railway fence. Each sector between gabions has an automated system of drip irrigation. Near the corner plazas, several palms are planted to provide shade and identity to the street-crossing. -/- The intervention proposes an ambivalent effect on the landscape, trascending the merely ornamental by accompanying the motorist in speed, while conforting the pedestrian with spaces for contemplation and urban relax. (shrink)

The complexity definition has appeared during analysis of visual structures perception. The binary model of visual impacts finding was essential here for a possibility of the general (abstract) research. The Abstract Complexity Definition is one of the research results. The definition meets intuitive complexity criterion and could be a common surface for all existing definitins of complexity.

Hylomorphism and related to it classical concept of the human soul—understood as a substantial form of the human being—are traditionally supported and commented on by the followers of the Aristotelian-Thomistic thought, both in its classical and contemporary approach. At the same time, hylomorphism has recently found a new group of followers, coming from the circles of analytic metaphysics, unrelated to the classical school of thought. This article strives to answer the question of the relation of the new, analytic versions of (...) hylomorphism to its classical definition. Moreover, it also analyzes their application in the debate concerning the mind-body problem in philosophy of mind, as well as the question of their reference to the concept of the human soul. It seems that the mereological and structural reinterpretation of the material and the formal causes departs considerably from the classical definition of hylomorphism. Moreover, the suggestion of William Jaworski – who argues in favor of the new hylomorphism in the mind-body debate – to define mental phenomena as “structured manifestations of powers” belonging to the parts of human body, not only raises some serious metaphysical concerns, but also seems to leave no “space” for the classical concept of human soul. These difficulties notwithstanding, one should appreciate an attempt of the proponents of the new analytic hylomorphism at finding an alternative to the extreme positions of substance or property dualism and eliminative or reductionist materialism in the contemporary discussion concerning the mind-body problem. (shrink)

Many enthusiasts of theistic evolution willingly accept Aquinas’s distinction between primary and secondary causes, to describe theologically “the mechanics” of evolutionary transformism. However, their description of the character of secondary causes in relation to God’s creative action oftentimes lacks precision. To some extent, the situation within the Thomistic camp is similar when it comes to specifying the exact nature of secondary and instrumental causes at work in evolution. Is it right to ascribe all causation in evolution to creatures—acting as secondary (...) and instrumental causes? Is there any space for a more direct divine action in evolutionary transitions? This article offers a new model of explaining the complexity of the causal nexus in the origin of new biological species, including the human species, analyzed in reference to both the immanent and transcendent orders of causation. (shrink)

Bertrand Russell’s Critique of the Arguments for the Existence of God The paper presents Bertrand Russell’s critique of arguments for the existence of God. I divided the theistic arguments which Russell criticizes into three groups. The first group involves arguments concerning the relation between Universe and God: the First Cause argument, the Natural law argument and the argument from Design. The second group is related to the concept of God as a moral Lawmaker and it contains the argument from morality (...) and the argument from remedy for injustice. The last group of arguments pertains to the relation between God and human beings. Here, I consider Russell's reflections on the validity of the argument from religious experience and his approach to the issue of the foundation of religion. The aim of this article is to consider whether Russellian argumentation against evidence for God's existence is justified. Keywords: Bertrand Russell, existence of God, argument, philosophy of religion, evidence. (shrink)

Combining aesthetic theory with gender analysis opens a large and diverse territory to explore. Both familiar issues in the philosophy of art and new, expanded questions about the influence of culture on imagination and identity have become subjects of feminist research. Film, literature, graphic arts, advertising, and the legacies of history all contribute to the forces that shape self-image, desire, behavior, and social role – as well as the ability to imagine possibilities for change. This issue brings together an international (...) group of scholars from several disciplines who explore gender and femininity, sexuality and its several iterations, and the politics of everyday life and culture. (shrink)

The book, which constitutes part of the current feminist research as broadly understood, deals in particular with issues related to the philosophical approach to women’s experience. The main thrust of the research is to ask questions such as: What is women’s experience? Is it generally possible to speak of women’s typical experiences? Does it influence knowledge, and if so, how? Does it influence women’s perception and interpretation of art, and if so, how? And finally, taking a broader perspective: can women’s (...) experience serve as a basis for distinguishing philosophical theories specific to women? Within the framework of feminist philosophy developed since the 1960s and 70s, researchers have employed the concept of women’s experience, but this concept has not yet been comprehensively elaborated and defined. Importantly, women’s experience also plays an essential role in the project of feminist esthetics, whose isolation from traditional esthetic reflection has been proposed by certain feminist authors. Therefore, the book also discusses the problem of the relationship of women’s experience in the feminist approach to the feminist esthetics postulated by researchers both male and female. The book takes the position that feminist philosophy is an integral part of traditional philosophical research, a part in which the feminist perspective is applied. This perspective is understood as a theoretical research tool, applied in the humanities and social sciences, in order to unmask the gender-related elements in traditional discourses and to determine their impact on the results of the conducted research, i.e., the knowledge obtained thereby. In this sense, the feminist perspective is of an evaluative and critical but also transformative nature, because the purpose of its application is to appreciate and highlight women and the phenomenon of womanhood as well as to incorporate gender-related categories within philosophical reflection and academic research. This goal is expressed in the practical demand for a transformation of sociopolitical practice and theory that takes women’s ways of experiencing reality into account. In this approach, the feminist perspective paradoxically brings us closer to the attainment of more universal, holistic, and gender-transcending knowledge. The order of the considerations presented in the book was dictated by their main objective: a philosophical approach to and description of women’s esthetic experiences. The first part comprises a reconstruction of the historical development of feminism, in which three waves of feminism―which, from the perspective of a contemporary researcher, constitute a historically complete field of research―are discussed in a synthetic manner. The first part of these considerations concludes the introduction to feminist philosophy, specifically through the reconstruction of selected critical arguments advanced by feminist researchers regarding the traditional theory of cognition. The second part of the book covers issues in the field of feminist philosophy. The considerations presented here are focused on the concept of women’s cognitive experience, of which women’s experience of an esthetic character constitutes a particular type. Hence, studies of feminist epistemology are presented first, followed by studies of feminist esthetics. Analysis of the esthetic experiences of women is carried out in two stages: first, through reference to a philosophical approach to women’s cognitive experiences, and second, on this basis, through indicating fundamental differences between feminist and androcentric understandings of esthetic experiences. Although critical references to feminist ideas and solutions appear in many places in the book, on the most general level the considerations presented here are consistent with the feminist ideal of merging theory and practice. Feminism, in essence, has grown from socio-political practice and evolved toward detailed philosophical and scientific theories. Importantly, these theories are continually being revised and creatively developed. Feminist researchers refer to women’s life practices because it is the latter that determines whether a given theory adequately addresses problems affecting women. Therefore, the research presented in the book is focused on women’s experiences, which, in the author’s opinion, constitute the reference point for any and all reflections taking the feminist perspective into account. -/- . (shrink)

Today, the binary understanding of reality is increasingly significant. It is also the starting point for many theoretical considerations (mainly in the area of digital physics) describing the structure of the universe. What is lacking is an experimental confirmation of the binary nature of reality. This article proposes an idea for an experiment that possibly would confirm the following hypothesis: Electromagnetic waves in the form of binary signals of appropriate complexity and other parameters are capable of creating observable, material objects. (...) Also suggested is the use of an Abstract Complexity Definition (derived from aesthetic field), presented in the Supplementary Material section. (shrink)

The main research goal of the work is to study the notion of co-topos, its correctness, properties and relations with toposes. In particular, the dualization process proposed by proponents of co-toposes has been analyzed, which transforms certain Heyting algebras of toposes into co-Heyting ones, by which a kind of paraconsistent logic may appear in place of intuitionistic logic. It has been shown that if certain two definitions of topos are to be equivalent, then in one of them, in the context (...) of a subobject classifier, there should be a neutral label for the generic subobject, or if the label "true" appears instead, it carries no additional properties or assumptions. It has been shown that a natural isomorphism occurring in one of the definitions of topos need not be an isomorphism of the corresponding algebraic structures on the sets, so that a co-Heyting algebraic structure can be defined on the set of characteristic morphisms, which moreover will also be natural. The analyzes suggest that the notion of co-topos may be considered correct. However, it should be strongly emphasized that although the possibility of defining the notion of co-topos has been shown, its further full consequences should be very carefully examined, which can severely limit its logical applications. (shrink)

In this article, the author analyses the relationship between two prominent philosophers of the 20th century in Europe and Great Britain—Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell. According to a lot of correspondence available nowadays we can reconstruct not only the environment of thought in Cambridge in the beginning and the first half of the 20th century but to find out some very personal, subjective grounds for the changes of relationship between thinkers, misunderstandings between them. Such a kind of biographical-historical reconstruction does (...) not interfere but helps to understand better the origin, development, and criticism of philosophical ideas and theories. In this context, the personal relationship between Russell and Wittgenstein, their friendship for more than 30 years, and mutual assistance, both intellectual and business, played a big role in the development and formation of both philosophers as philosophers. Even mutual disagreements and criticism of ideas over time helped them to see the shortcomings and sometimes even complete failure of their theses and statements. First, the author describes in detail the role of Russell in Wittgenstein’s life: first meeting and inspiration to do philosophy, support in studies, assistance in the publication of Wittgenstein’s first book, support, and facilitation in returning to Cambridge in 1929, obtaining PhD degree and receiving Trinity College grant. Second, the author considers the fundamental points of philosophical disagreements between the two philosophers and Wittgenstein’s critique of Russell’s ideas. (shrink)

This article analyses in detail Wittgenstein’s ‘Cambridge period’ from his return to Cambridge in 1929 until his decease in 1951. Within the ‘Cambridge period’, scholars usually distinguish the ‘middle’ (1929–1936) and the ‘late’ (1936–1951) periods. The trigger point of Wittgenstein’s return to Cambridge and philosophy was his visit to Brouwer’s lecture on ‘Mathematics, Science, and Language’ in Vienna in March 1928. Dutch mathematician Brouwer influenced not only Wittgenstein’s ability to do philosophy again but also the development of some of his (...) ideas. Namely, for Brouwer, language was a natural development of the social history of human beings. With the help of his friends, F. P. Ramsey, J. M. Keynes, G. E. Moore, and B. Russell, in 1929 Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge. The author argues that this was the crucial turning point in his philosophy that led to the revision of some of his ideas. Wittgenstein returned from self-isolation in remote villages of Lower Austria to the intellectual academic environment, where he could discuss his ideas with intellectual interlocutors and receive their valuable remarks and comments. This article is organised in chronological order: it describes the very ‘early’ middle period of 1929–1935 involving the development of Wittgenstein’s ‘phenomenology’ and the origin of the ‘language-games’ concept in the Blue and Brown Books; 1935–1936 period of ‘romantic’ enthusiasm for Soviet Russia and a trip there; Wittgenstein’s life and work during the WWII-time; resign from teaching in Cambridge in 1947 to finally finish his Philosophical Investigations. The author suggests that the ‘romantic areal’ about the USSR was formed by Wittgenstein’s predilection for Russian poetry and literature of the nineteenth century, i.e., Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Pushkin. Analysing the development of Wittgenstein’s ideas on language in his Cambridge period, the author mentions the influence of N. Bakhtin and P. Sraffa. Also, the author touches upon the topic of the possibility of Marxism’s influence on Wittgenstein’s life and thought. (shrink)

Se busca dar cuenta de la filiación filosófica que tres historiadores de la filosofía (de los siglos XVIII y XIX) otorgan a Juan Escoto Eriúgena (siglo IX). El iluminista J. Brucker, el kantiano W. Tennemann y el romántico T. Rixner son representantes del periodo de gestación de la historia de la filosofía como disciplina, y sus obras son fuentes para destacados filósofos, como por ejemplo Hegel. Se muestra hasta qué punto las líneas interpretativas que iniciaron estos autores se continúan hasta (...) la actualidad. The article explores the philosophical filiations of Johannes Scotus Eriugena (9th century) established by three historians of philosophy (from the 18th and 19th centuries). J. Brucker, an Enlightenment thinker, W. Tennemann, a Kantian, and T. Rixner, a Romantic, are representatives of the period in which the history of philosophy becomes a discipline, and their works are sources for famous philosophers such as Hegel. The paper shows the extent to which the interpretive lines initiated by these authors are continued up to the contemporary period. Neste artigo, pretende-se dar conta da afiliação filosófica que três historiadores da filosofia (dos séculos XVIII e XIX) outorgam a Juan Escoto Eriúgena (século IX). O iluminista J. Brucker, o kantiano W. Tennemann e o romántico T. Rixner são representantes do período de gestação da história da filosofia como disciplina, e suas obras são fontes para destacados filósofos, como por exemplo, Hegel. Mostra-e até que ponto as linhas interpretativas que iniciaram esses autores continuam até a atualidade. (shrink)

Neither Aristotle nor Aquinas assumes the reality of the evolution of species. Their systems of thought, however, remain open to the new data, offering an essential contribution to the ongoing debate between scientific, philosophical, and theological aspects of the theory of evolution. After discussing some key issues of substance metaphysics in its encounter with the theory of evolution (hylomorphism, transformism of species, teleology, chance, the principle of proportionate causation), I present a Thomistic response to its major hypotheses. Concerning the philosophy (...) of Aquinas, I trace what might be seen as a preliminary description of natural selection in his commentary on Aristotle's Physics. Turning toward theology, besides addressing the topics that were referred to in the past—such as: Aquinas’ reading of Genesis, his account of creation as dependence in being, secondary and instrumental causality, and univocal/equivocal predication of God—I bring into discussion Thomas’ concept of the perfection of the universe, which has been virtually unused in this context. (shrink)

Panentheism has recently become a widely accepted and appreciated concept among scholars in the science-theology dialogue, and its theological repercussions have been discussed to great extent. Yet, there remains to be studied in more detail the notion of the philosophical foundations of the term. A prominent gap in our understanding of these foundations is the potential similarity between the metaphysics of Hegel and Whitehead, their understanding of the transcendence and immanence of God, and their respective versions of panentheism. In this (...) article, I present a critical reflection on the possible resemblance between process thought and Hegelian metaphysics and philosophy of God. In the last section I refer to those who use panentheism within the science-theology dialogue. I try to specify which of the two versions of panentheism, that of Hegel or Whitehead, is more popular among those scholars. (shrink)

Currently, under the conditions of permanent financial risks that hamper the sustainable economic growth in the financial sector, the development of evaluation and risk management methods both regulated by Basel II and III and others seem to be of special importance. The reputation risk is one of significant risks affecting reliability and credibility of commercial banks. The importance of reputation risk management and the quality of their assessment remain relevant as the probability of decrease in or loss of business reputation (...) influences the financial results and the degree of customers’, partners’ and stakeholders’ confidence. By means of imitating modeling based on Bayesian Networks and the fuzzy data analysis, the article characterizes the mechanism of reputation risk assessment and possible losses evaluation in banks by plotting normal and lognormal distribution functions. Monte-Carlo simulation is used to calculate the probability of losses caused by reputation risks. The degree of standardized histogram similarity is determined on the basis of the fuzzy data analysis applying Hamming distance method. The tree-like hierarchy based on the OWA-operator is used to aggregate the data with Fishburne's coefficients as the convolution scales. The mechanism takes into account the impact of criteria, such as return on equity, goodwill value, the risk assets ratio, the share of the productive assets in net assets, the efficiency ratio of interest bearing liabilities, the risk ratio of credit operations, the funding ratio and reliability index on the business reputation of the bank. The suggested methods and recommendations might be applied to develop the decision-making mechanism targeted at the implementation of reputation risk management system in commercial banks as well as to optimize risk management technologies. (shrink)

The anti-reductionist character of the recent philosophy of biology and the dynamic development of the science of emergent properties prove that the time is ripe to reintroduce the thought of Aristotle, the first advocate of a “top-down” approach in life-sciences, back into the science/philosophy debate. His philosophy of nature provides profound insights particularly in the context of the contemporary science of evolution, which is still struggling with the questions of form species), teleology, and the role of chance in evolutionary processes. (...) However although Aristotle is referenced in the evolutionary debate, a thorough analysis of his theory of hylomorphism and the classical principle of causality which he proposes is still needed in this exchange. Such is the main concern of the first part of the present article which shows Aristotle’s metaphysics of substance as an open system, ready to incorporate new hypothesis of modern and contemporary science. The second part begins with the historical exploration of the trajectory from Darwin to Darwinism regarded as a metaphysical position. This exploration leads to an inquiry into the central topics of the present debate in the philosophy of evolutionary biology. It shows that Aristotle’s understanding of species teleology and chance – in the context of his fourfold notion of causality – has a considerable explanatory power which may enhance our understanding of the nature of evolutionary processes. This fact may inspire, in turn, a retrieval of the classical theology of divine action, based on Aristotelian metaphysics, in the science/theology dialogue. The aim of the present article is to prepare a philosophical ground for such project. (shrink)

In this paper is considered the linguistic approach to the problem of the relationship between a human being and reality. If in the Christian tradition language was given by God and God endowed human beings with the ability to name objects, then in the 17th century German speaking philosophers, following Descartes’ turn to the ego, had changed this thought. Since Herder and Humboldt language has been considered not as a representation of reality, but as a representation of a human mind. (...) These thinkers were the first who revealed the inseparable interdependence of human thinking and language, the influence of language on the socio- cultural lifeworld of human beings, and the role of language in the development of the world-view. (shrink)

This article examines the special features of the atmosphere in Habsburg’s Vienna, which led to the formation of such a direction in philosophical thought as a critique of language (Sprachkritik) and the influence its representatives such as Karl Kraus and Fritz Mauthner on the later Ludwig Wittgenstein’s views on language. I argue that Sprachkritik was inextricably connected with Sprachkrise (crisis of language), Sprachkrise was a strongly Austrian phenomenon due to special socio-cultural-political reasons and which led to the consideration of the (...) very phenomenon of language from a new point of view. Here I claim that Ludwig Wittgenstein, a ‘product’ of Habsburg’s Vienna, was strongly influenced by the intellectual atmosphere of the critique of language reigning in it. In Roberto Poli’s (1997: 16), scholar in sociology and philosophy, words, the “language-world relationship was a central element of the intellectual debate of those years: suffice it to mention Rainer Maria Rilke and Hugo von Hofmannsthal among writers, and Fritz Mauthner and Ludwig Wittgenstein among philosophers.” . (shrink)

The paper is a part of the project of retrieving C.B. Macpherson’s thesis of possessive individualism and his contribution to investigations about democratic theory and the “Western political ontology” valuable especially in today’s context of expansion, crisis and – arguably – subsequent, experienced today, revival of the project of “neoliberal democracy”. The aim of my paper is to present theory of possessive individualism as the missing center of critical theory of democracy. The task is conducted through a brief reconstruction of (...) Macpherson’s investigations into the history of liberal doctrine and argumentation about the continuing validity and firmness of this approach despite its alleged “definitive refutation” in contemporary historiography of modern social and political thought. (shrink)

In this article I consider Eugen Fink’s critique of Husserlean approach to language in phenomenology, first of all in the ‘middle’ and ‘late’ periods of Husserlean works since Ideas I. Fink was Husserl’s student and assistant and, also, he was influenced by Heidegger’s ideas. In his works he criticized insufficient attention and unworked position to language in Husserl’s works. He believed that language is very important to the whole theory of phenomenology, that we cannot carry out true phenomenological reduction without (...) clarifying what language is, how it is related to our thinking, is it possible to think without language and is it possible to carry out a complete phenomenological reduction. (shrink)

Discussion of modeling within philosophy of science has focused in how models, understood as finished products, represent the world. This approach has some issues accounting for the value of modeling in situations where there are controversies as to which should be the object of representation. In this work I show that a historical analysis of modeling complements the aforementioned representational program, since it allows us to examine processes of integration of analogies that play a role in the generation of criteria (...) of relevance, which are important for the configuration of the object of research. This, in turn, shows that there are norms in modeling practices whose historical reconstruction is relevant for their philosophical analysis. (shrink)

Stanisław Lem, a philosopher and futurologist, in his many works devoted much attention to the condition of human and the relation between human and technology. He coined the term ‘autoevolution’ in the course of forecasting unlimited technological augmentation of human abilities. Nowadays, the term may be associated with the conceptions presented by transhumanism, a 20th-century-born philosophical movement which advocates radical transformation of Homo sapiens by means of the achievements of scientific and technological progress. Lem’s attitude towards such a transformation of (...) human is complicated yet ultimately critical due to the fact that it poses a threat to human culture as such. The phenomenon of autoevolution undermines existing values and raises a question of authenticity of a future posthuman. We examine dependence between technology and culture, present Lem’s conception of autoevolution and his philosophy of culture, then we sketch a post-metaphysical dispute about authenticity, and finally show that Lem’s thought belongs to one of the arguing sides. (shrink)

In the act of knowing consciousness, the experience (experience) of a thing by another individual is put into it. All the components of the environment that manifest themselves in movement, sound, light, resistance, etc. become a source of introjection in the experience. As a result of animism, what exists outside of man is divided into an external world and an extra-world existence, and knowledge is differentiated into sensuous and non-empirical. The original naive empirical duality becomes a metaphysical dualism.